Thurston County Fair ends season with 3,000 more attendees than last year

The Thurston County Fair wrapped up its five-day run on Sunday with an estimated 3,000 more attendees than last year.

Known to be pretty laid back Emulous, a Black Angus, may have had her fill of show competition on the Thurston County Fair's last day Sunday.
The Olympian

Freedom Riders 4H Club member Delaney Johnson rides her horse Joker to their place ribbon in the junior division of the pole races during the annual western games competition Sunday on the 2014 Thurston County Fair's closing day.
The Olympian

On the closing day for the Thurston County Fair Sunday Teresa Smith stands next to Sherman, Prize and Emulous, as all three combined for a successful showmanship week for her son Beau, who's a member of the North Thurston FFA chapter.
The Olympian

Taking a day to explore the Thurston County Fair is a summer tradition that Heather Short is passing on to her three kids, ages 6, 7 and 9.

She said she’s always enjoyed the fair’s small-town feel and variety of activities.

“Our kids just really enjoy the animals — and, of course, the rides,” said Short, 39, of Lacey, as she waited for her kids to finish rides in the carnival area.

By noon Sunday, the fair was on track to beat last year’s attendance of 33,350 people by about 3,000, said fair coordinator Theresa Reid.

“We’re trending up,” she said. “It’s good.”

The boost in tickets was most likely because of a stronger economy, Reid said.

“People have a little more disposable income,” she said.

Other factors included sunny weather — which always helps the fair attendance — new activities and some additional promotional efforts such as bus advertisements, Reid said.

The fair’s animal barns and show arenas had the most activity throughout the day, with events such as Equine Western Games and the 4-H dog grooming competition.

In the fair’s cattle competition, a 1,500-pound Black Angus named Gohr’s Emulus, or Emmy, won top awards in the FFA show and the adult showmanship contest.

Teresa Smith of Lacey said her son’s 2-year-old cow gets the royal treatment at home.

In fact, she sleeps in a horse stall every night.

“She has a fan in the barn, and if it gets really hot, we have a (water) mister for her,” Smith said. “My husband calls her ‘The Gucci Cow’ because she has more products and has more time spent on her hair than I do.”

Meantime, at the fair’s Author’s Corner, Maureen Bieker, sold and signed copies of her new book, “The Paper Tiger.”

“This is my first public appearance,” said Bieker, 47, of Olympia, who writes under the pen name Mary Ann Baker.

She works in information technology for Thurston County, and spent about three years writing the story about a runaway who joins a circus. The book was released in January by Amazon, and she’s already begun to pen a sequel.

“It’s fiction, but the stories and the subplots, those are things that are in my life,” Bieker said. “It was a story that had to be told — it just had to come out.”